Organizations may face risk any time they deploy new organization management software. This may be particularly true if the new software replaces existing, proven processes and methods for operating the organization—which is generally true when an organization deploys or updates an enterprise computing system or enterprise resource planning software.
Once implemented, enterprise computing systems may facilitate efficient planning and delivery of a large organization's products and services to consumers. Such systems may incorporate an extensive array of computer hardware such as application servers, data servers, networking equipment and client computer devices. The client computer devices may access the data in application servers via a network such as an intranet or via secure channels over the internet. Data and application servers may be centrally organized in one or more data centers, or the servers may be distributed across departments and sites of the organization.
An enterprise computing system may employ various software packages to manage data within the organization. Many large organizations utilize enterprise software, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to centrally manage data for various departments of the organization and to automate various organization activities. In general, ERP software allows a company to efficiently process data that is used by multiple departments. As an example, a manufacturing company may employ an ERP system to manage its manufacturing, sales and financial departments. More particularly, an ERP system may provide resources for a sales department to track orders for products; resources for a purchasing department to track orders for parts needed to manufacture the ordered products; resources for a manufacturing department to track products through the manufacturing process and to manage inventory; resources for a sales department to track order fulfillment and generally manage interactions with customers; and resources for a financial department to track parts costs, pay suppliers, track orders and process payments for fulfilled orders.
The software portion of an enterprise computing system may include various modules that may be used alone or integrated with other modules. For example, an organization may employ a supply chain management (SCM) module to support the organization's manufacturing operations; an organization may employ a customer relations management (CRM) module to log interactions between, for example, a marketing department and a prospective customer or a support department and a current customer; and an organization may employ a financials module to budget its operations, pay suppliers and employees, and receive payment from customers. Some organizations may employ an ERP system that integrates each of these modules into a single system.
Enterprise systems are generally very complex and expensive to implement. Portions of an enterprise system may be customized to meet specific needs of an organization. To implement an enterprise system, an organization may employ various business and technical consultants to analyze the organization's workflows and processes; identify appropriate enterprise software components; install the components on the organization's existing computer hardware infrastructure or on new computer hardware; integrate various software components; and customize various user interfaces provided by the components, in order to meet specific needs of the organization. For many organizations, this implementation process may require many months of effort and may cost between tens of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars. Failed implementations are especially costly.
An enterprise system may be deployed in phases. For example, a “pilot environment” may be set up during a configuration phase. The pilot environment may be set up to mimic a “production environment,” but on a smaller scale. In some implementations, enterprise software in a pilot environment may have reduced functionality. For example, certain features may be disabled in order to make the configuration process more efficient. Moreover, the pilot environment may be configured for a limited number of users (e.g., just enough “representative” users to test the sample with of the full pool of users who will user who will use the “production environment” system).